In order to determine exactly what makes a website successful we first have to determine what “successful” is for you, your business, and your budget. There are several elements that should be implemented into every business website such as easily accessible contact information, a company profile or bio, a list of services and/or products, as well as company news. These are considered (in our office at least) as NWE or Necessary Website Elements. These are the website features that you will find on most large company websites and internet-savvy consumers are looking for them every time they visit a new website. Although it is very important to know that customers won’t look and search too long to find something on your site in most cases so these NWE’s need to be easy to find on your website.

This is one area that many websites can definitely improve on and quite often overly-creative developers will steer business owners in the wrong direction, sacrificing user-friendly convenience for flashy and unique designs. While it is important to use creativity while developing a corporate website, it is equally if not more important to stick to the basics and provide a very functional and friendly interface for your customers. At the end of the day wouldn’t you rather have your customers easily navigate through your website and be able to contact you in seconds when prompted by a cleverly placed call-to-action?

Most of the clients we have worked with over the years have considered a successful website to be one that generates a lot of leads or sales; although we continue to have several clients a year who are looking to design or redesign a website strictly for brand awareness purposes. If we take the general idea that a successful website is one that generates more sales or leads then we can begin to break down the ingredients that can make a website successful.

Let’s start by asking ourselves, “How do you generate more sales or leads from your website and business?”

It is not uncommon for business owners to spend a lot of time, energy, and money trying to answer this question. Well, there are several ways that your business can generate more sales and leads however we will focus on the most important methods that often get overlooked. In order to increase your revenue from your business and website you have to increase the number of pillars holding up your house of revenue. A house with one pillar is not very stable. If that pillar crumbles…so does the house of revenue.

In order to generate more pillars you must identify ways of accomplishing the following three things:

1. Deal with your existing customers more often.
2. Increase the amount of money you make off of each customer.
3. Increase your profit margins on every transaction.

Of course creating new pillars based on these methods does require a fair amount of planning, time, and consideration to be effective. Don’t worry, all of them don’t have to be done tomorrow. To get you started, let’s examine each of these a little closer.

If your idea of success with your website is to:

• Increase user activity and response from your website;
• Develop a solid brand that is easily recognizable;
• Encourage visitors to promote your website to other potential customers; and
• Generate new pillars of revenue from existing customers.

then you should consider the following when having your company’s website developed in the near future:

1. Keep it simple – Users don’t want to think when they visit your website. They want to be guided.
2. Keep it consistent – Users don’t like change, unless it is content. Moving elements can stir away visitors.
3. Keep it clean – Users like clean and creative layouts as long as they are easy to navigate.
4. Keep it updated – Update your content often and give customers a reason to come back often.
5. Keep it social – Allow users the ability to easily share your website with friends, family, and co-workers.
6. Keep it fun – Offer contents as often as you can to create a ‘buzz’ about your business and encourage new visitors.

The merger has been the result of several months of discussion amongst executives who were anxious to join forces in offer cost-effective, high quality printing and promotional products to our existing and expanding clientele. We look forward to a bright future together and are now more solidly positioned as a one-stop shop for our business customers.

PrintingShark.com offers a wide range of services and products ranging from business card printing to large format back-lit signage and even new technologies such as 3D business cards. PrintingShark.com was of particular interest to Creative Designs given that they are the only print shop to produce plastic PVC cards in house without outsourcing or sub-contracting. Additionally, their core belief is that it is best not to be the cheapest in town if it means sacrificing quality. This philosophy makes a lot of sense and paired up perfectly with the beliefs and core values within our web design studio in Ottawa; where we will always create websites for our clients with an emphasis on quality, effectiveness, and strategic growth rather than focusing on the lowest cost solutions. After all, it is far better to have superior, effective, and affordable solutions for your business that give you a significant competitive edge and generate incredible results rather than just enough to get by and be lost in the increasingly crowded marketplace.

We would like to officially welcome the team at PrintingShark.com to the Creative Designs family and we would also like to say that we are excited to work with all of you!

In a statement from Creative Designs’, “We spent a lot of time doing research on the marketing and sales side of things to perfect the most effective closing tool for roofing companies. Our roofing website sample illustrates the effectiveness of our product and has already helped several roofing contractors close 20% more sales shortly after our launch. We anticipate that this product will prove to be the single most important closing tool for any roofing company. However we are not offering this to every company. We believe that a large part of our products value is the exclusiveness that comes with joining our network. Since we want to build long-term relationships with our roofing contractors we will only be offering this product to one roofing company in every city across North America. This way our clients can maintain a significant competitive edge over their competitors to ensure that they are able to close more sales and grow their business.”

It is definitely a powerful product that every roofing company should consider before their competitors decide to join the Creative Designs network. The website packages are all-inclusive and clients will receive included search engine optimization along with their website, design, hosting, domain name, and emails for their business. You can find out more information about our new product division and to join our network of successful roofing contractors call us or complete the online signup and learn more at our roofing website design company RooferWebs.